Overview[]

Spectre of the Cold War


File:BuckyWS2.jpg

Name:	James Buchanan Barnes
AKA:	None
Codename:	The Winter Soldier
Age:	88
Race:	Human
Role:	Neutral
Type:	Marvel FC
Registration:	Unregistered

The Winter Soldier

James "Bucky" Barnes was Captain America's longtime friend and then right hand man during World War II, but was lost in combat near the end of the war.

Some years later, the Winter Soldier first appeared, kicking off a decades-long career of espionage and assassination that made him infamous among those intelligence and law enforcement experts who believed in his existence. After a period of post-Cold War dormancy, it seems this terror of the past may have risen again.

Sheet[]

Character Sheet

Abilities: Ability

Conditioning: 3/4, High Pain Tolerance: 6, Keen Eye: 6

Abilities: Skill

Covert Ops: 7, Hand to Hand: 7, Marksmanship: 8, Tactics: 7

Abilities: Gear

Bionic Reflexes: 5, Bionic Strength: 4, Electric Shock: 4, EMP, Weapon Caches: 5

Advantages: Languages, Remote Control, Sensor Array

Flaws: Hunted, Man With No Name, No Legal ID, Trigger Phrases, Van Winkle Effect

Languages: English, German, Japanese, and Russian

Abilities

Ability: Conditioning (3/4)

James was in his physical prime when he initially 'died', and the Russians made sure to keep him on ice as much as possible to preserve his conditioning. His Strength and Toughness are effectively a 3, and his Dexterity is effectively 4; he can operate for hours without tiring, as well.

Ability: High Pain Tolerance (6)

SAS and KGB counterinterrogation training combined with a lifetime of getting into fights with people larger and stronger than he is have afforded James a high threshold for punishment. His Willpower is effectively a 6 for the purposes of persevering through pain.

Ability: Keen Eye (6)

From studying patrol patterns and spotting snipers during World War II to taking out targets through miles of fierce blizzard during the Cold War, James is well-practiced at carefully observing his surroundings and spotting even fine details with great acuity. This ability effectively raises his Perception to 6.

Gear: Bionic Reflexes (5)

James has reflexes comfortably beyond the range of human ability--but only in his left arm.

Gear: Bionic Strength (4)

James' bionic left arm is much stronger than his normal one, and the rest of his body has been reinforced somewhat to accomodate the extra stress.

Gear: Electric Shock (4)

James' bionic arm can discharge up to around 30,000 volts of electricity, more than enough to kill, or at the least grievously injure a normal man.

Gear: EMP

James can discharge a close range EMP from his bionic arm, shutting down unprotected electronic equipment in a ten foot radius around himself.

Gear: Weapon Caches (5)

Limitation: Because of the unreliable nature of these caches, there's really no guarantee that any given one will actually be accessible, or have any usable gear at all. Or that the gear won't be so old that it needs to be heavily serviced before it's good for anything, or that it hasn't been picked clean of all but, say, a lockpick and some assorted ammo clips.

Spread throughout both former Soviet and Western territory are weapons caches of varying sizes and degrees of secrecy; a culture of nationalistic paranoia drove the Kremlin to ensure that its agents throughout the world would always be prepared for the very worst. Some of these caches have remained secured - even maintained - since the Wall came down; others, plundered by enterprising criminals, or discovered by the authorities. James still remembers where to find a good number of these caches, and given time to pin-point and find a way into one(if he's lucky), he has access to a varied arsenal of military hardware, explosives, and covert ops equipment.

Skill: Covert Ops (7)

During World War II, James Barnes' job was to do the kinds of nasty, covert work that Captain America couldn't be associated with, which often required him to sneak behind enemy lines to gather intel, sabotage important installations, and slit the occasional throat; further training and missions from his eventual Russian handlers honed these skills dramatically, and his ability to slip in and out of enemy territory to carry out his missions virtually undetected played a significant role in building the Winter Soldier's fearsome reputation.

Skill: Hand to Hand (7)

James is a highly proficient hand to hand combatant, having been trained extensively by the US Army and his Russian handlers to quickly and efficiently neutralize enemy targets without the benefit of weapons.

Skill: Marksmanship (8)

James is an excellent shot with all manner of firearms; his specialty, however, is sniping.

Skill: Tactics (7)

A significant portion of James' military and ops training focused on tactical thinking and planning to better prepare him for difficult combat scenarios. He excels at examining a situation from multiple angles to determine the best point of attack or entry for himself, as well as finding things in his environment to turn it to his advantage.

Advantages

Advantage: Languages

James is fluent in Japanese, German, and of course, Russian. He can, in fact, affect a very convincing Russian accent.

Advantage: Remote Control

James can control his arm even when it's been separated from him. He can do so from a pretty good distance away; for example, he was able to overpower scientists studying his arm in one section of the Helicarrier while imprisoned elsewhere on it, in canon.

Advantage: Sensor Array

Sensors in James' arm allow him to pass through metal detectors and other similar forms of electronic security without setting them off; this protection extends to metal objects carried on his person, as well.

Flaws

Flaw: Hunted

The Winter Soldier is wanted by law enforcement and intelligence organizations all over the world for his crimes during the Cold War. On top of that, his former handlers are highly invested in retrieving him, and have access to significant resources in both the United States and Russia.

Flaw: Man With No Name

James has no memory of his life before he was awakened by Russian scientists in 1954; in fact, he only 'knows' that his name is James at all because a spy told him that it was, once. His only memories are of his time as the Winter Soldier, and even those are patchy in places due to repeated Soviet brainwashing sessions.

Flaw: No Legal ID

James has no passport, no driver's license, no social security number--no identification of any kind.

Flaw: Trigger Phrases

While James has broken free of his Soviet conditioning, there's still a small number of trigger phrases that, when spoken, activate deeply embedded directives that he can't help but carry out.

Flaw: Van Winkle Effect

The Winter Soldier's interactions with the modern world were limited until he broke free of his programming; as a result, there are many small social, cultural, and technological quirks of modern life that he still doesn't grok.

History[]

James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes was many things; a swaggering kid from Brooklyn who made a career out of finishing the fights his more impassioned friend would start, a soldier in the second world war, and then a war hero alongside Captain America. Despite his cocky attitude, he wasn't really the sort of person who liked to fight. Not that it ever stopped him when the reasons were right.. But he's none of those things now. He's not even Bucky Barnes. Thought dead near the end of the war, James was collected by the enemy badly wounded, and remade over the course of years into something much more simple and reliable; a weapon. A weapon saved for the most covert assassinations, a killer known to no one, no connections, no history, only few sightings. As the decades stretched out, he became something of a ghost story in the intelligence community.. the Winter Soldier.

Logs[]

The following logs feature James Barnes:

News[]

The following news stories feature James Barnes:

No news stories currently listed.

Associations[]

Wanted[]

File:Wanted.jpg

James Barnes's Wanted List